Judge confirms investigation over DeKalb case

A local judge has announced she will step down early next year and told the Daily Report that the state Judicial Qualifications Commission is investigating how she handled the DeKalb Schools corruption case.

Last year, DeKalb Superior Judge Cynthia Becker ignored a plea deal negotiated with former Superintendent Crawford Lewis for his testimony against two other former schools officials: Pat Reid and Tony Pope.

Pope and Reid were accused of being involved in a scheme to steer lucrative construction contracts to family members. Under the plea deal, Lewis was supposed to receive 12 months of probation, but Becker sentenced him to 12 months in jail because, according to the Daily Report, she didn’t believe his testimony.

That set off a chain of events that resulted in the Appeals Court vacating Lewis’ sentence and criticizing Becker for ignoring the plea deal, The Daily Report article says. The Daily Report previously reported that Becker is facing a JQC investigation, which Becker has confirmed.

She said she is leaving in early 2015, adding she has been planning to resign for some time because she is getting married.